Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

One Year Later: Honor “The Girl with the Blue Bra” and Others Like Her

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From our friends at the Egypt-based group HarassMap:

“A year has passed since Egyptian army soldiers stripped a female protester in Tahrir Square, beat her, and stomped on her half-naked body with their boots. The image circulated worldwide and the girl with the blue bra – whose identity remained unknown, but who in Egypt was dubbed ‘Sitt el Banat’ (‘A Woman Among Girls’) – became a symbol for all the other female protesters who took to the streets during this time and were met with assault, beatings, arbitrary detentions, verbal abuse, rape threats, and more.

We would like to commemorate this time, not just for the horrors it contained, but for the strength, dignity, and defiance of Sitt el Banat and the thousands of other women who still face a campaign to deter women from political participation — and who continue, despite threats to their safety and well-being, to take to the streets to fight for what they believe in.

What would you like to say to Sitt el Banat and others like her?

Please send us your own letters/messages to them on facebook, or twitter @harassmap or email at info@harassmap.org”

After someone asked what happened to the woman, a SSH Facebook member wrote:

“She is alive and she is now advocate for women rights! this is a link for her testimony http://youtu.be/QxoZoQqTRQg (Arabic) She is activist and member in 6th October political movement.”

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Digest of Street Harassment News: December 16, 2012

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** Sign up to receive a monthly e-newsletter from Stop Street Harassment ***

Street Harassment Stories:

Share your story! You can read street harassment stories on the Web at:

Stop Street Harassment Blog

Collective Action for Safe Spaces

HarassMap in Egypt

Bijoya in Bangladesh

Resist Harassment in Lebanon

Ramallah Street Watch in Palestine

Name and Shame in Pakistan

Safe Streets in Yemen

Street Harassment in South Africa

Many of the Hollaback sites

Everyday Sexism

Street Harassment In the News, on the Blogs:

* All Africa, “Egypt Widens Efforts to Confront Sexual Harassment“

* Huffington Post, “Sexual Violence Prevention: It’s Time to Go Big“

* F to the Third Power, “I Need Feminism Because My Sister Shouldn’t Have To Experience Street Harassment“

* Selfhelp Magazine, “Hey, Baby: The Psychology of Street Harassment“

* Smoke and Stir, “Street Harassment, Empathy, and Fighting Misogyny with Stories“

* Shakesville, “Street Harassment: Same Old Shit, 40 Years Later“

* Zee News, “Govt mulling over law to save street vendors from harassment: Maken“

* Role/Reboot, “A Letter To the Guy Who Harassed Me Outside the Bar“

* The F Word, “‘Hasn’t anybody ever told you a handful is enough?‘”

Announcements:

New:

* Read Jennifer Harrison’s dissertation, “Gender segregation on public transport in South Asia: A critical evaluation of approaches for addressing harassment against women.”

* Check out the Tumblr “Ish people say to me on my way to the train“

Reminders:

*Follow Stop Street Harassment on Tumblr

* If you’re a woman ages 18-26, take a survey for a student’s thesis on street harassment

* HoodRules thebook is now available!

* Check out the project CATCALLED: the stories of 11 women in New York City from two weeks in August 2012, now online.

* Baltimore, MD, folks — take a survey about street harassment for Hollaback! Bmore

* METRAC released a free “Not Your Baby App” to provide responses you can use when experiencing harassment

10 Tweets from the Week:

1. @Morgane_R I’m so tired of the way we raise our young men to think its okay to verbally violate a womans body on the street. #streetharassment

2. @nualacabral Addressing personal experiences w/ #streetharassment is an effective entry point for broader convo about sexism, racism & sexuality. #fem2

3. @kadyrabbit #bitchesbe tired of street harassment

4. ‏@skelleee Today in street harassment, I was on the phone crossing a highway when dude from other side walked right up to me to say some shit.

5. @ItsRyanTime Ahh nothing like sexual harassment on the street to kick start your Sunday

6. @lauratownshend So after 25 mins of constantly, directly rebuffed street harassment, the ONLY thing that works is saying I have a boyfriend #everydaysexism

7. @KimberlyNFoster Same-race street harassment is a behavioral pattern, and thus a cultural phenomenon—one that is rooted in black patriarchy (Fogg-Davis 2006)

8. @Imaninople Wow… more street harassment just for me? Must be my lucky day.

9. @phasmune Yeah totally, street harassment is totally flattering. I was blushing and giggling before from that fugly bald man’s lovely compliments.

10. @scarlettnarwhal More shoreditch street harassment, ‘pissing bitch’, then ‘Norway ho,go back to Norway’. Lovely.

 

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“Gender segregation on public transport in South Asia”

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Garment workers travel on a bus in Bangalore, India
Credit: Tom Pietrasik/ActionAid

Congratulations to Jennifer Harrison who recently received high marks for her graduate thesis entitled, “Gender segregation on public transport in South Asia: A critical evaluation of approaches for addressing harassment against women.”

This is her thesis abstract, and you can read her full dissertation here..

“Sexual harassment of women on public transport is a widespread problem within South Asia, which creates a variety of negative impacts, including physical and psychological harm, limitation of access to the wider public sphere, and entrenchment of gender differences within society.  This dissertation reviews a range of literature, and interviews with several women’s rights experts, to assess the challenges women face when attempting to obtain justice. It also explores theories of women’s access to space in order to evaluate proposed strategies to address the issue.  The debate is essentially one of segregation versus non-segregation, both on public transport and in wider public space, and how the former promotes women’s personal safety but engenders existing patriarchal norms, while the latter exposes women to greater risk but allows them increased opportunity to tackle entrenched gender inequality. In order to alter perceptions of women on public transport, a strategy that priorities women’s right to space must be pursued, but consequently there must also be an accessible support network in place to allow for suitable action when their right to space is questioned. Ultimately, no strategy will succeed without also tackling the wider cultural, political and religious gender inequalities that pervade South Asian societies.”

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“…what can you do? But FACE IT”

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The Blog Shakesville posted this 1972 comic strip yesterday, writing,

“…what strikes me more than anything is this: how little has changed in the United States, despite 40 years of feminist protest against street harassment. It’s still ubiquitous. It’s still a barrier to full participation in public life. There are still no good options. And it’s still one of those things we’re just supposed to put up with, like wind or rain.”

While street harassment itself is the same, what has changed is how all of us are able to connect and support each other and speak out globally, thanks to the Internet! I believe that in 40 more years, this issue will be gone, or nearly gone.
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